Federalism: A Solution for the Middle East

In conflict for nearly 3,000 years ¹ , the State of Israel finds itself once again embroiled in yet another war ² with one of its neighbors, Palestine, which is unfortunately not the first but which is especially unlikely to be the last.

The underlying problem is a question of territoriality . Solutions supported by third States and by the UN have been proposed, aiming to create a single binational State ³ , as in Lebanon, or even two separate States ⁴ , without success so far.

A third option, however, has not yet been studied: that of federalism . This solution allows each state to be sovereign over the powers relating to everyday life (housing, health, etc.) and to pool at a federal level the sovereign powers of the army, diplomacy and currency.

If there has already been some thought given to this notion in this region ⁵ , it has often been limited either to the Israeli-Palestinian problem ^6 7 , or to Lebanon ^8 9 .

However, the solution is not limited to grouping together one or two states, but in reality three, namely Israel, Palestine and Lebanon, in order to reconstitute the land of Canaan ¹⁰ , thereby grouping together, like the city of Jerusalem, the three main monotheistic religions: Islam, Christianity and Judaism, which today concerns nearly four billion individuals on the planet.

This solution is all the more feasible given that each of these three states has a nearly identical population, estimated at 15 million inhabitants, half of whom still live there. The other half live as a diaspora outside their borders.

The creation of a federal state would also allow it to free itself from the pressures and influences of the major countries in the region (Egypt, Syria, Iran, Turkey, etc.) which have continually imposed their domination on it throughout history.